Alan Stewart’s UK and Ireland family history news

Over 280 Scottish directories online

For some time, the Historical Directories site has provided online access to English and Welsh directories. Now Scottish directories are available online too.

Over 280 Scottish Post Office directories are available online for the first time for family and town history research at the National Library of Scotland website. Covering the period 1774 to 1911, and issued annually, the directories include an alphabetical listing of the inhabitants of a town or county. Most of them also list people by street and by trade. Some directories record other information – banks, churches, insurance companies, teachers, and medical and law practitioners, for instance.

Access to these directories has been made possible by partnership project involving a number of Scottish libraries. When completed in summer 2011, the project will deliver a website which will search over 600 Post Office directories covering most of Scotland.

Online you can now access 287 directories covering several of Scotland’s towns and counties. The number in brackets with each place name is the number of directories available.